Why Harper Lee Never Wrote Another Novel
Some authors, like Stephen King, seem to produce a new novel every year. Some
authors, on the other hand, write one book and then never write again. Harper Lee, who
wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, was in the second group.
Why would an author write a great novel and then never write again? Perhaps a look into
her life can help us to understand.
Harper Lee, one of America’s most famous Southern Gothic authors, was born on
April 26, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama (Handschuh). As she was growing up in that
small town, she became close friends with another future author, Truman Capote
(“Harper Lee Biography”). She was interested in writing, and she focused on that skill
when she attended Huntingdon College and, later, when she attended law school at the
University of Alabama (Handschuh).
After a brief career as an airline reservation clerk (Handschuh), Harper Lee began
working on her first novel, which she originally titled Go Set A Watchman and later
changed to Atticus (“Harper Lee Biography”). She finally settled on the title To Kill a
Mockingbird and submitted a manuscript to the J.B. Lippincott Company in 1957, but
they told her the novel read more like a series of short stories and told her to rewrite it
(Handschuh). The novel is set in a small town in Alabama and concerns a white lawyer,
Atticus Finch, the widowed father of two small children, who defends a black man
against the charge of raping a white woman. The book became an international bestseller
and was made into an Oscar-winning movie in 1962 (Liukkonen). The novel won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1960 (“Harper Lee Biography”).
People have often wondered why she never wrote another book. One of her
friends, an Alabama minister, asked her recently. She said,
Two reasons: one, I wouldn't go through the pressure and
publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount
of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it
again. (Richter)
Although Harper Lee never published another novel (“Harper Lee Biography”),
she made an everlasting mark on American literature. Since its publication, To Kill a
Mockingbird has never been out of print (Handschuh). In a foreword to the 1977 English
edition of the novel published in Moscow, Nadiya Matuzova included Harper Lee with
Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Erskine Caldwell in a list of authors who have
contributed the most to literature depicting the American South (Liukkonen). Harper Lee
will always be remembered for writing one of the most celebrated American novels of all
time. One can only hope that her readers understood her message the first time since she
has vowed never to repeat it.